Electrical equipment manufacturing ERP: what to look for

Generic ERP expects the same item to come off a fixed recipe, batch after batch, while an electrical equipment maker builds to each customer’s rating, drawing and test requirement.

Two transformers of equal kVA can differ in tapping range, vector group, cooling and bushing make, and none of that fits a catalogue line with one stock code. Each order is a project. Generic setups push those differences into free text notes, so a planner searching for the vector group of last year’s order finds nothing and rereads emailed drawings. That costs real time.

Ask each vendor to take one such order, with its own drawing, BOM and inspection plan, from enquiry to dispatch on your real product, before anyone mentions price.

Drawings change after approval. The system should let engineering release a BOM revision, flag what changed and block purchase or issue against the old one, which keeps wiremen and storekeepers off stale prints.

Look for change notes that name jobs. A revision that silently overwrites the old BOM is worse than no system, because it erases the history you need during a dispute with the buyer.

Test it with a live example. Revise a BOM on a job that already has stock issued, then see what the screen tells the storekeeper about busbars, lugs and breakers already on the shop floor.

Rated products are tested before dispatch. A transformer gets ratio, winding resistance, insulation and loss readings, a motor gets no load and locked rotor checks, and switchgear gets dielectric and mechanical operation tests.

The ERP should hold one test template per product family and attach each filled sheet to its serial number, so dispatch sees pass or fail before loading. An untested unit cannot slip out.

Ask whether the result exports as the customer’s own inspection format, because retyping readings into that format costs the quality team hours every week.

Breakers, relays, bushings, cable and laminations arrive from outside suppliers on uneven lead times, so each job needs supplier follow up dates and goods receipt against every purchase order. Add a shortage view by job.

Metal prices drift between quote and order. Your quotation was priced on one day and the winding wire arrives on another, so record the metal basis in the quotation and compare it with the purchase.

That is a visibility need. You see the gap early. Electrical steel and winding wire arrive in coils and reels priced by weight, so the quoted metal weight per unit should sit beside the final consumption.

Pick three real jobs: a repeat order, a custom one and a job revised after approval, then have each vendor enter them live. Watch how revisions, tests and shortages behave. Keep the scorecard open during every demo.

Then phone a user at another electrical manufacturer, not the salesperson, and ask which jobs, tests or shortage lists they still keep in spreadsheets.

Write findings against the four needs. Give the director one page, not a deck. A vendor who cannot show a locked revision, a serial linked test sheet, a shortage list and a metal basis field on your own jobs has not earned it.